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Introduction
Family-owned businesses contribute 57 percent of the GDP in the U.S., and make up 85 percent of start-ups worldwide (Family Firm Facts, 2014). As such, it is important to identify entrepreneurial variables that provide family businesses with the ability to succeed regardless of violability in internal and external environments over time. “An entrepreneurial firm is one that engages in product-market innovation, undertakes somewhat risky ventures, and is first to come up with ‘proactive’ innovations, beating competitors to the punch” (Miller, 1983). Khajeheian (2017) adds that entrepreneurship is strongly associated with value proposition to a target market and that media entrepreneurship is based on meeting needs of market businesses or consumers. Entrepreneurship has played a vital role for growth and innovation in media organizations, according to Hoag (2008), because innovation is often the key to resiliency. Hang and Van Weezel (2007) found that media entrepreneurship, in particular, is booming because of the changing media landscape and focus on digital technology. However, as Khajeheian (2013) states, entrepreneurship requires new ways of planning in order to be successful. A paucity of research exists how family media companies uniquely foster entrepreneurship and sustainability. To fill the gap, this study looks at the importance of family values on the decision-making process and what drives media organizations to evolve from one generation to the next.
The purpose of this research was to employ organizational ecology to explore how a family media company fostered traditions of innovation and information dissemination through multiple media delivery platforms across generations in local communities in the USA. This is significant in that only one-third of family firms make it to the second generation, and only 12 percent make it to the third generation (Beckhard and Dyer, 1983). Research indicates, however, that family firms are able to survive if they sustain an entrepreneurial approach across business life cycles from one generation to the next. Furthermore, children who grow up around a family business develop intimate understandings of business practices and can be personally groomed for succession by older generations (Ward, 2011). For example, companies such as Cargill, IKEA and Tyson Foods have endured by passing down ownership values from generation to generation (Sund and Bjuggren, 2007).
According to Achtenhagen (2008, p. 124), “Very little is known...